


Don't Warp the Wood

by sweet_fa (h_d)



Category: Original Work
Genre: Banter, Fluff, M/M, Original Character(s), Romance, Slice of Life, Writing Exercise
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-20
Updated: 2015-03-20
Packaged: 2018-03-18 18:20:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 486
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3579327
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/h_d/pseuds/sweet_fa
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jack has a crush on his friend Marc.  Will he act on it?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Don't Warp the Wood

Jack placed his beer bottle on Marc's kitchen table. They usually hung out at Jack's place, which was closer to work. Jack couldn't remember the last time he'd been here. A few years, probably.

"Dude, use a coaster, that table's brand new. You'll warp the wood," Marc said. 

"You own coasters? What, are they imprinted with your monogrammed initials or something? You're such a fancy boy," Jack said. "One of the fanciest boys in the whole universe."

"And you're an ass," Marc told him, but he was smiling fondly when he returned with two coasters. The coasters were simple, made of cork and plastic. Marc placed his own beer on a coaster and slid one under Jack's.

They sat down. 

"So what did you want to talk to me about?" Marc asked.

Jack took a deep breath and looked around. Marc's door was locked, the blinds were drawn, and he lived alone. Unless the furniture was sentient, there was no way anyone but Marc would hear what Jack was about to say. Jack didn't care what other people thought, but he very much wanted this conversation to be private.

"Um," Jack said, and stopped. All of the words had been snatched out of his mind, as though they lived in a dystopian world in which romance was forbidden, and any attempt to go beyond the boundaries of friendship was erased right at the source.

"Yeah, that's not really helpful," Marc said. He tipped his beer bottle back and drank, and Jack watched, transfixed at the motion of his Adam's apple bobbing as he swallowed. 

"You're the only gay guy I know," Jack blurted out. 

That was not what he had meant to say.

Marc raised an eyebrow. "Right."

"But that's not why I—" Jack tried again. "That's not why I'm interested. I mean, I am interested. In you."

He had Marc's attention now. "Interested in what way?" Marc asked carefully.

Jack waved his hands around, frustrated, and the truth exploded out of him. "Whatever way. Dating, sex, both, I'm just interested, okay? I'm interested." 

"Okay," Marc said. "But you've never done anything at all with a guy before. I know you haven't. Is this some kind of an experiment for you? That happened to me once, and let me tell you, I'll never let it happen again." 

"No!" Jack protested. "It's nothing like that. I think about you all the time. I want to do nice things for you, like, I don't know, take you to dinner. Use coasters at your place. Kiss you. And whatever. Whatever else you want."

It was finally all out there, as plain as he could make it. As the adrenaline of the moment left his body, Jack felt drained. He slumped in his seat, spreading his hands on the table and closing his eyes.

He jumped when Marc's hand touched his. "Hey. Yeah, okay, Jack. Let's give it a try."

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for the following prompt: "Write a non-science-fiction story including the following words: dystopian, sentient, warp, experiment, universe."


End file.
